Chris Martin, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter famed as the frontman of Coldplay, has told Q Magazine he couldn't perform without his bandmates, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion, adding he'd probably end up an unsuccessful busker if he tried to go it alone.

Chris said: "I'd just be terrible. I don't think I could even get a gig in Butlins - and I've been to Butlins. I think me and my keyboard would be outside Woolworths most days, getting shouted at."

The musician has written some solo material and performed a set with bandmate Jonny at Mencap's Little Noise Sessions in London last week, but insisted he will never split from Coldplay.

He said: "They're very good friends to me because they know that, as the singer, and especially because I'm married to Gwyneth Paltrow, I get eight times as much media as them.

"They know how much I need them, I just couldn't do it on my own."

Chris and wife Gwyneth Paltrow are close friends of rapper Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce, but Chris revealed he can't believe the hip-hop star is a fan of his.

He said: "When Jay first said, 'I like your band' I was, like, 'What the f*** are you talking about? No, you don't!' Then I realised he doesn't bring any baggage. 'I like your songs.' It was as simple as that."

Chris thinks their friendship is "hilarious", adding, "What's the common denominator? Well, underneath he probably feels a bit like me and I feel a bit like him."

But Gwyneth has another theory. She said: "They balance each other out. Chris and I are like Jay and Beyonce: two paranoid ironists and two calm, grounded people."

Meanwhile, it wasn't quite the first case of 'Tambourine Rage' but Martin last week admonished a female fan when began playing the tambourine loudly at an intimate charity gig in Hackney.

The singer started playing The Scientist on the piano but had to stop when a woman started accompanying him on the tambourine. "This is not a tambourine song, I don't mean to be rude," he said.

"Let me be honest with you, we tried tambourine on the recording and we had to scrap it so we have been playing it for 10 years with no tambourine. It probably sounds great but I'm just too use to it without tambourine. Please don't take it personally.

"I can't see what you look like, but you look lovely and sound fantastic.

"Don't take this to be some kind of anti-tambourine rally or rant against the tambourine. I love the tambourine, it's one of my favourite instruments."

After the woman put the tambourine down at the Mencap charity gig at St John-at-Hackney Church, Lower Clapton Road, London, there was cheering from the crowd.

Chris added: "I promise the next song is a tambourine frenzy, you can go crazy."